


Down Beneath the Waves

by samjohnsson



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-26
Updated: 2010-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-13 09:58:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/136001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samjohnsson/pseuds/samjohnsson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes it takes another thousand to explain it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down Beneath the Waves

**Author's Note:**

> Sutlers? Thank you for the bunny. Raine? Thank you for feeding the bunny industrial strength carrots and convincing me that whumping the hell out of my muses is a perfectly acceptable writing strategy. Jossed by 1x14, but I don't care!

On Friday, Kono was hiding in the computer lab from the morning's 'discussion' and trying to get a case summary for a drug bust pulled together when she saw an e-mail come in from a "jerseymonkey@gmail.com" with the subject “Please Help”. Scanning it for viruses, she opened it, curious and glad for an excuse to procrastinate a bit. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but an e-mail from Danny’s daughter didn’t even make the list.

> Miss Kono:
> 
> Daddy made sure that I had everyone’s e-mail if I needed to use it. My nanny is helping me type this e-mail. If it would be okay, could you tell me how to ask Daddy why he won’t let you teach me how to surf? I really want to learn, and I really want you to teach me.
> 
> My grandma has been putting all sorts of old pictures on her computer. She keeps sending me pictures of Daddy as he grew up. My nanny is helping me send two of these pictures to you.
> 
> Miss Kono, why won’t he let me surf when he has? I really want to learn. Could you show him these pictures and ask him again? Please?
> 
> Grace Williams

 _”When he has” what?_ Kono wondered, scrolling down to the first of the attachments. She felt her face go slack at the picture: a much younger Danny, maybe not even twenty, standing at the edge of a wind-tossed ocean, bodysuit rolled down to his waist exposing a very well-defined chest, hair visibly damp and skin evenly tanned. It was eclipsed by the more shocking parts of the picture: that he was grinning widely, his entire body relaxed like the team had rarely seen; that he was leaning casually against a funboard planted in the ground; that there was another similarly-dressed guy about the same age and build, with handsome aquiline features and dark curly hair over expressive eyes and a broad toothy smile, his arm wrapped around Danny’s waist, holding him close. She immediately saved it down to the desktop and scrolled to the second picture and received an even greater shock.

Sure, the first picture could have been staged. Rent a suit and board and soak the hair. But this? This second picture brought her thoughts to a stop. Same age Danny. Same board, probably. From what she could tell, same beach. But where before he had been posing on the shore? This one, he was sliding the board along a respectable curl in an almost-perfect stance. Every line in his body was loose and relaxed, like he was so familiar with this and, while the resolution wasn’t great, she was certain his face was as lit up as whenever he saw his daughter. This? This was an aspect of her mentor and friend that she knew nothing about, and she wanted an explanation.

Glancing over at the open case summary, she felt a distinctly Steve-like smirk form as a horrible idea popped in to her head. She quickly wrote an e-mail back to thank “Miss Grace” for the pictures and inform her that she’d try asking her daddy again. Then she copied both pictures into the case summary, sent the whole package to the projection table, and sent her boys a message that she was ready to practice the summary before dealing with the district attorney’s office.

* * *

“…and these last few slides are alternate observational angles of the drug exchange with the undercover officer.” Chin saw Kono wasn’t looking at the table or the overheads when she nonchalantly flipped to two last pictures; she was watching the team’s reactions instead. “With all the evidence, sir, the conviction should be remarkably easy, especially considering there was none of the usual coercion in this arrest.” Silence fell, as she waited for the inevitable criticism.

Disbelief flooded through Chin as he wondered where she had found evidence that a younger Danny surfed. He crossed his arms and shifted his gaze between the monitor and his teammates. He almost snorted when he saw that Steve had the cutest confused look on his face, eyebrows pulled together, jaw slightly open, as he leaned toward the photos, as if he could see more detail by simply getting closer. But Danny?

Danny’s normally mobile face, the face that previewed every thought he had, was fixed in a solid emotionless mask. The relaxation in the pictures was nowhere to be seen in his frame – the worst sign of his mood was that his hands were clenched against his sides. His eyes were completely locked on the posed picture of him and the stranger. In a flat tone, he ground out from between clenched teeth, “Officer Kalakaua, it was a well-organized presentation with clear methodology and simple enough explanations for any jury pool. The D.A. should be pleased – as long as you remember to verify that none of your personal documents have been misfiled in the case summary.” With that, he spun on his heel and strode out of the office, muttering something loudly about following up with some informants.

Kono looked as shocked as her two remaining teammates, both of whom were staring at Danny’s rapidly-retreating form. While Chin knew he was surprised at Danny’s violently restrained reaction, an open look of betrayal spread across Steve’s face as his gaze alternated between the still-displayed pictures and the closing main doors, an expression that hurt to see. He looked as if his best friend had been lying to him, which, well…

Chin found his voice first. “Cuz, where did you get those pictures? You didn’t Photoshop them, did you?”

“No. I got an e-mail from Grace. Her grandma’s been scanning old pictures in and sending some to Grace. She _really_ wants to learn to surf, and must’ve been confused why her daddy would keep saying no when he surfed.” Kono and Chin watched as Steve bolted into his office, closing the door behind him and lowering the blinds. Looking back to Chin, she hesitated. “I thought he’d laugh, admit we busted him, and give us a good story. I didn’t think he’d flip.”

“I don’t know why he did either, Cuz. Whatever those pictures remind him of hurts him a lot.” He stopped and shook his head. “He was right – it was a good presentation, but it was completely the wrong place to surprise him. You broke him, somehow. You need to fix him. He’ll probably be at J.J.’s when he gets off shift, since he doesn’t have Grace this weekend. I’ll see if Steve wants to talk.”

Kono nodded absently, already visibly considering how to approach Danny when his defenses were up. Chin knew the shorter man could be volatile on the best days, and he got upset enough occasionally to fly out of the office, but this was on the same scale as when Steve had accused Danny’s old partner of being dirty. One thing he knew he had seen – the tension was all related to the other guy in the photo. Whoever he was, he had to be someone pretty special to get that sort of reaction from Danny.

* * *

Kono found him, as her cousin predicted, slumped over in a secluded booth at J.J.’s, tumbler of whiskey in hand. Judging by the depth of his slump and the state of his unknotted tie, it wasn’t his first. She quietly took the seat across from him and waited for an acknowledgement that she was there. When he finally glanced toward her, his face a passable imitation of Steve’s best blank look, she decided to drop any innocent-cousin routine, taking the direct approach instead.

She reached over and rested her hand on his. “I’m sorry, Danny. I didn’t know those were bad memories. Grace got those pictures from your mom and sent them to me to use as leverage for surfing lessons. I thought slipping them in would be funny. I don’t know why it hurt you, but I didn’t mean it.”

Danny focused his blank stare forward, slowly sipping his whiskey.

“Do you want to talk about it? About him?” Kono knew she was fighting dirty, but she pulled a print-out of the picture of the two guys and slid it under Danny’s hand. She had long since learned that playing fair with any of her team got nothing done.

After a long moment, his head slowly fell and he saw on the picture. As soon as he did, all the air blew out of him as if he’d been gut-punched.

“Matt.”

Kono was shocked by the amount of pain in Danny’s voice.

He set his glass down and picked up the picture, rubbing his thumb over it and started slowly. “His name was Matt. Matteo Contos. We were…we were best friends, brothers, I dunno, _everything_ to each other, for a while. For a long while. Grew up across the street, you know. We were inseparable – Ma used to joke that she didn’t remember giving birth to twins.” Danny snorted, lost in his memory, as he finished his whiskey. “Double-dated our girlfriends a couple times in high school. We went to college together, were roommates, even. I was going for law enforcement; he was gonna be a paramedic, maybe an ER nurse. We were gonna try to get jobs in the same township. He joked that he’d be my personal driver whenever I got shot and I could remind him to sleep.”

He sighed, waving the waiter down for two beers, and looked back down at the picture. “You gonna go running back to the other two about this?”

Resting her hand on his forearm, she leaned in. “Nope. This is you and me. I’ll tell the boys it’s none of their business. You _should_ tell them at some point – Chin was frowning and Steve looked like someone took away his favorite knife, but it’s your call.”

He chuckled a little at the image, smiling slightly as some motion returned to his stiff face – he knew exactly the kicked-puppy look she was describing.

She decided to change tacks – she knew if she kept Danny talking, she’d get the full story. If she felt badly about practicing her interviewing skills on one of her mentors, well, she’d talk it out with Chin later. “That’s a surfboard in that picture, though. And I’m pretty sure that’s you in that wetsuit. Nice look on you, by the way.”

He snorted, grinning a little more. “Good detective work, recognizing the surfboard.”

“I thought ‘Danno don’t surf’?”

“Danno doesn’t. Dan did.”

“I saw. Good form on the curl. Not pro, but not everyone’s me.”

He just rolled his eyes at her. “Humble, Kono. Matt’s family had – still has, as far as I know – a house on one of the barrier islands, down in Beach Haven. We spent a lot of our summers at that house; Matt’s dad taught us both how to swim there.” His hand waved out to the side, just missing his whiskey tumbler. Kono relaxed slightly at seeing him become animated again. “He’d surfed since he was 12, 13, something. I never saw the point. Why get into the water to just get out of the water? Anyway, after our freshman year in college, we decided we were going to officially camp out at the beach house until we had to go back to classes. First day there, well, let’s say there was alcohol and a bet, which I lost horribly, and it resulted in me getting on his board the next day. We didn’t know his suit would fit me, and let me tell you now, in Jersey, you wear a suit, given a chance.”

She giggled. “Water a little cold?”

“In May? You have no idea. Icebergs would not have been a surprise.” He took a swig of his beer, waving his bottle a bit. “And it wasn’t horrible. After I was actually able to stay on the board for more than ten seconds, it was really fun – it was this rush, this speed. You were always barely in control and always by the consent of the ocean. By June, he made me buy my own suit and board, since he said he was sick of me stealing his. Don’t know why – he stole my clothes all the time. That’s when those pictures were taken, actually – right after we had a huge fake fight over whether his shortboard or my funboard was better. I won.”

“Were you two…” Kono’s voice faded, not sure if she should pry.

“We were complicated.” Danny shrugged, both arms coming off the table, his shoulders opening from their slouch. “We never went on a date, if that’s what you’re asking. But sometimes there was beer, or sometimes the breeze coming off the ocean was pretty damn cold. Sometimes when the winds were howling from a storm and only the hurricane lanterns would stay lit, it was just me and Matt and nothing else in the world. He was…comfortable to be around. And he was always around. So yeah, I guess – by college, we were a couple in everything but name. I used to wonder what it would’ve been like to really date him.” He tilted the bottle to his lips, draining it.

“You guys have a bad falling out?” She didn’t care for the blankness returning to his face. Danny shouldn’t be that still.

He started tracing circles on the table with the empty bottle, staring downward, silent for long minutes. “Thing you have to understand about Matt, he was the most stubborn man I ever met. And yes, I have met Steve. I mean _stubborn._ And a fair bit impulsive. It was…” Danny stopped shakily, breathed deeply, and started up again, quieter, forcing her to lean in closer to listen. “It was Labor Day weekend, our sophomore year of college. We went to classes for a week and retreated back to the beach house, because we could tell it was going to be one of those semesters.”

Kono nodded silently and motioned him to go on.

“He always went surfing in the morning. It was a ritual to him when he was there. The weather was turning early that year, and there was a caution flag up, but he had to go surf.” Danny tapped the bottle against the bar, hard. “I told him the weather was off, the waves were off, that he should come back to bed. But no, he had to surf, so I went to go watch. He was riding fine, though I don’t think he realized how close to one of the breakwaters he was getting. He took a spill…” His eyes closed. “And he got sucked into the riptide all the flags were warning about. That damn beach always had really strong rips. Since he was so far down the beach, it was too long before the beach patrol got to him – they figure he hit the back of his head hard on some rocks on the bottom, scraping it open as well.” Danny laughed painfully. “One of the patrol guys said he actually saw a shark fin, drawn by the blood. But they got him on land and got him to the hospital. They got him out of the water, but…” His breath hitched, and Kono couldn’t help herself, running one of her hands comfortingly against his forearm; she had a pretty good idea where this was going, from his description.

“He…between the concussion, the blood loss, and the anoxia, he was comatose. Full life support.” Danny leaned forward, burying his face in his hands. “He had a living will. Three months, maximum. That’s all he wanted – said he’d seen too many people just wasting there. So three months after Labor Day, they took him off the ventilator. He was…hollow. Even though I was there every single weekend, it was still hard to see how faded he was, to see that empty shell. He wasn’t off the machines a minute before he was gone.” His voice was shaking with misery, an echo of his normal self. “They cremated him with his favorite board, the one he let me use that first time. I sold my own board and never went back that house or beach.” He completely broke down at this point, nesting his head in his arms, shoulders twitching the only clue to his silent crying.

Kono sighed painfully, sliding to the other side of the booth and reaching around her mentor to embrace him. After a few minutes, she started to drag him out of the booth. “C’mon, brah. Let’s get you out of here. I’ve got more beer at my place, and you can crash there.”

Muffled by his arms, Danny choked out between sobs, “No, I’ll go back to mine. I’m fine, Kono.”

“No, you’re not, Danny. You’re a lot of things, but right now, fine isn’t one of them. And if I let you go back to your place in this state, I don’t know if Steve, Chin, or my mom would claim the right to beat me first.” She herded him into her car and back to her apartment. Temporarily leaving him propped in the corner, she unfolded the futon and got him settled down for a restless night, stroking his back until he cried himself to sleep.

* * *

Danny woke slowly, eyes grainy with salt, and looked around confused before he remembered Kono picking him up from the bar last night. Stretching, he winced as his headache reminded him how much he had to drink and why he was drinking in the first place. After righting his sleep-wrinkled clothes as best as he could and running a hand through his wrecked hair, he staggered into the bathroom for the necessities. After staring in the mirror to gather his nerves, he went to the kitchen to find Kono already up, frying eggs and bacon, a glass of juice poured on the table. Choosing a seat where he could ignore the competition memorabilia scattered about the apartment, he slumped down on one of the kitchen chairs and picked up the juice, looking at it askance.

“I don’t know if I can deal with pineapple juice today.” His throat felt raw, from both the whiskey and the crying.

Kono didn’t even turn around. “Unlike your partner, I do listen to you. It’s an orange and mango blend – smoother on the stomach. You as hung over as you sound?”

“Yeah. More memories than alcohol, though. Kono, I…” Danny paused, taking a drink of what turned to not be a completely vile concoction. She was right – it was sweet without being cloying, and thick enough to actually stay down.

“Danny, _ohana_. I’m here for ya.” She shut the burner off and turned to the table to plate the eggs, noting the determined look on his face. “Are you sure you want to continue this already? You’re not awake yet.”

“If I wait, I’ll keep ignoring it. I’ve already broken down on you – might as well keep up the good work.” He sighed, propping his forehead on one hand, prodding the eggs she set in front of him with a fork. She probably figured out where this was going, but he had told himself he was going to get it off his chest. “Since you now know all my dirty secrets.”

“I doubt it.” She grinned at him, trying to lighten the mood.

He was unfazed. “Ha. Ha. Seriously.” He looked up at her from under his hand. “Every time Gracie asks about surfing lessons, I see her, in my mind, in that hospital room, lying so still on the bed, hollowed out. I lost Matt to a damn board. If I lost Grace…” He trailed off, breath hitching, eyes wide in fear.

“God, Danny. Don’t say that.” She reached across the table, grabbing his free hand and setting the fork down. “You’ve gotta know, what happened to Matt was an accident.”

Shaking his head at that, he just sighed. “A freak occurrence. Yeah, I heard that from all our friends and both our families. That, or it was his fault that he went surfing that day.” It was like they thought he couldn’t hear their whispers at the funeral. “It doesn’t help. He’s gone, and I’m so afraid I’ll lose someone else I love.”

“Danny…you’re letting the ocean win.”

He stared at her, completely lost– it was bad enough when the team started speaking Pidgin or Hawai’ian. Now she was speaking Moon or something.

“Something Ian told me after I blew out my knee.” Kono made sure to keep eye contact, squeezing his hand more firmly to anchor him. “Even after the physical therapy, I wasn’t excited about getting back on the board. Ian pulled me aside one day and told me if I didn’t get back in the water, back on the board, then the ocean had won and all the work I did wouldn’t count for anything. Not that I listened for a month, but he was right.”

“Kono, I…” He really didn’t need platitudes right now.

She reached forward and put a finger against his lips. “Uh-uh. I can hear what you’re thinking. One more question. What would Matt say about you giving up? Giving up surfing, the beach, hell, giving up him? You looked so happy together, it’s a shame to throw away all those memories. Would he want you to lose that? Think on it for a while.”

Danny fell still, eyes wide, as those words sunk in. God. She never met Matt, but she was right on the money about what he would’ve had to say about Danny giving up surfing.

“I’ll tell the boys to back off, and I’ll tell Grace you have your reasons. I’m not gonna pressure you, not gonna bring it up after this, but if you want to give it a try again, let me know. We’ll get you a board and a suit, then we’ll find a beach the boys won’t be at. It’ll just be you and me, seeing if you still have your legs. And it’ll be just once, unless you decide you want to go more. No questions from me, either way.” Satisfied with what she saw in his face, she continued, “Now, eat your eggs before they get cold.”

“If no one’s said it before, Kono? You’re turning into your mother.” Danny rolled his eyes and laid into his breakfast, stomach calming but thoughts roiling. She really was too perceptive for anyone’s sanity. Just one more joy of working with this team. Still. That someone cared enough to take the time to learn how to read him, learn how to beat a point into his head? He hadn’t had that since…since Matt. It made him feel like…like he was home.

He didn’t realize till he got back to his place that Kono had slipped the photo into his pocket when she took him to get his car. He spent most of the weekend staring at it, thinking.

* * *

It figured. She wasn’t in her office five minutes Monday morning before she saw Steve and Chin lurking, wanting an explanation. After some tactical file deletion, Kono decided to take the fight to them. Sliding out of her office, she strode up to where they were waiting.

“Hey, Cuz. What did Danny have to say about those pics?”

“What pictures are you talking about, Chin? The ones I can easily get out of Auntie Ming-Na? From your sophomore year?” Taking a perverse pleasure in watching Chin pale, she turned a sharp gaze to Steve. “As for you, you of all people should understand _and respect_ leaving secrets alone. I’m not above calling your sister. Danny and I talked, and he forgave me, and it’s done. So unless you boys want me to see what I can find on you, leave it be. If Danny ever feels comfortable talking about any pictures – and it’s the subject, not the audience, Steve, so stop frowning – he’ll tell you.”

She saw Danny grinning as he used the distraction to slip into his office. Giving him a few seconds longer, Kono took the time to glare thoroughly at the other two, and disappeared back into her office behind a closed door to make contingency plans against over-curious co-workers with no respect for personal boundaries.

Chin looked over at Steve, to confirm the hurt and yet curious look he was expecting the SEAL to have. “Leave it, brah. She’s threatening to go to the relatives, which means she’s feeling defensive on his behalf. You won’t get anything out of her without his permission. And if Danny’s not said anything before, he’s not going to say it now. Give him time.” Catching the anticipated frown, Chin continued, “Yeah, I know you’re not patient. Look, Danny found a couple of good leads on that ecstasy ring we’ve been looking for. Let’s go beat some doors and see what we shake out.”

Steve rolled his eyes at Chin’s obvious tactics, but went willingly. Kono hoped busting a few dealers would help deflect his frustration at his silent partner.

* * *

The office tended to be quiet on Fridays and more so when Steve and Chin were stuck testifying in court, so Danny knew his conversation with Kono was not going to have any inquiring or over-protective bystanders. Kono would never pass up a chance to tweak him on a good day, and what he had to say to her would certainly be worth the inevitable teasing. Stepping into her office, he ran a hand over the board she had propped against the wall.

“You were right.”

“Words to warm any gal’s heart. Better than the other three, in fact.” Yeah, there was the tweaking. The quick response helped to turn the faint frown he knew he’d been wearing all week into something resembling a smile. Still, the smirk she was wearing was almost too much. “What clued you in, boss?”

“Your radiant beauty and stunning left hook? Seriously, though. Been thinking all week about what you said last Saturday, about what Matt would say. He’d be so _pissed_ that I just gave up everything from that summer. So...” Danny hesitated, looking down. He loathed asking for help, but supposedly, that’s what this team did. “Is your offer still open? Maybe tomorrow, so I don’t have time to chicken out?”

“Of course. I was planning on hitting a beach anyway. I know a place that has some tame waves, since you haven’t been out in a decade.” She kept him in her sight as he watched her snap off a quick e-mail.

“More, actually.” He actually was ashamed at this – Matt would’ve hit him with his board if he knew, and judging from the look on her face? She might be considering it too.

“Yeah, so. And you’re shorter than me,” she couldn’t help but pause and grin when he bristled at the crack about his height, “so you can use my spare board easily enough. You’ll have to buy your own wetsuit if you want one.”

“Kono.” He slumped back against the door. “I really owe you for this.”

Shaking her head, she quickly replied, “No you don’t. You’re family, Danny. If this helps, I’m happy to do it.”

“You say that now. You’ve still got to get me in the water.”

She grinned evilly at something on her monitor. “So I’ll check out a Taser this weekend. Don’t worry, Danny. What happens, happens. Come by my apartment tomorrow morning. And don’t worry about the boys showing up. I’m cashing in a favor from Ben to use one of his private corporate beaches. He’ll be there to unlock the gate and to spot sharks for ya, brah.”

He just shot her a glare and wandered out of her office with a wave of his hand. While he wasn’t thrilled _at all_ about someone else being there, he knew just about any beach would have someone on it, and he could trust Kono to keep Ben quiet about this. He also knew Matt would come back and haunt him if he backed out now. One thing about it did surprise him, though – his shoulders were more relaxed than they had been all week.

* * *

Kono was satisfied to see she really was right – not only that Danny wasn’t bad, especially for being out of the water for ten years, but how relaxed, how happy he was in the surf. And if she thought some of the saltwater in his eyes wasn’t from the ocean, she didn’t say anything.

* * *

The three of them settled in to the bar booth in an amazing mood. Kono barely let Ben get settled before she leaned in on top of him and Danny slid in on the other side all the way to the corner so he could stretch out his right leg on the bench, grinning in spite of the sharp pain radiating up and down his leg.

“Knee bothering you, Danny?”

“A little. Haven’t done that in a while, and I never learned to ride goofy.” He flagged down a waitress, smirking as he ordered a round of beer. “I owe you both a lot for this. Ben, thank you for letting us use the beach and borrow a funboard – I never got used to the short ones.”

“Don’t worry about it – it was fun. And I’m always in favor of people getting back in the water. If you’re thinking about getting your own board, have Kono send me an e-mail. I’ll see if we can’t get you a discount on stuff.”

He was shocked by the generosity from a guy who’d more or less had his life kicked over by the team. “Ben, that’s too much.”

“No, it’s not. You guys figured out who killed Ian. Besides, Kono would beat me up if I didn’t.”

“You know it.” She sat up enough to punch him in the arm and leaned back in. “So, Danny. Glad you went?”

“Yeah. I remembered why Matt was able to keep me on a board. Well, that and bribery I’m not telling you about. Would...” Danny hesitated, twirling the beer bottle on the table. He was going to get comfortable asking these people for help one of these days. Eventually. Maybe. “I don’t have Grace next weekend. Again. Because god forbid Rachel actually keeps a schedule.” Danny frowned slightly, at that. “Would you be willing to go again?”

“Sure, brah. We going to tell the boys yet?”

“I’m not…no. Not yet. It was fun today, but I don’t know how I’ll feel tomorrow. Physically or mentally. Besides, can you picture the look on Steve’s face when he figures out we’ve been keeping a secret from him? It will drive him insane.”

“Yeah, it will. Maybe too insane. You really want to lie to him, Danny?”

“Why not? He likes a challenge.” He snapped, then looked down at the table, sighing. There were some truths he was comfortable admitting right now. His past emotions and loves? Sure. His current desires? Not so much – he had wanted Steve too hard for too long and knew that if something went wrong between them, it would destroy the team. No, better to ignore the desire he had for the tall man. “Not really, no. I’ll tell him. It’s just that as soon as he knows, he’ll want to drag me to every single beach on the island. Right now, I need some not-Steve in my life. And what’s he going to do, complain that I’m hanging out with people and acclimating to Hawaii? It’s not like he doesn’t have a ton of secrets in his past.” Danny shook his and leaned back against the wall. “Enough about Commander McAngst. Feed my ego instead. How good was I today?”

Kono and Ben both laughed and followed Danny’s lead in changing the topic to more enjoyable things.

* * *

Never let it be said Chin passed up an opportunity. Kono had waltzed in Tuesday morning all strung out because the A.D.A. lost a whole pile of reports and her computer wasn’t showing the originals. He offered to do some fast “computer maintenance”, which was the new term for “abusing the chance to be exceptionally nosy into his cousin’s digital life”. Maybe he could find out what she and Danny were all so secretive about the last couple weeks. And since she needed files from the Week of the Pictures, it really was the easiest solution to just restore all those deleted files and sort them out. And if he happened to find the pictures themselves on the backup he made, score. It should just take a few more…there they were. Copying them on to a thumb drive, and putting the rest of the files on her desktop, he waved her back in.

“Hey, Kono. Got all your files back from that week. Made a copy of them, just in case.” Chin grinned, waving the thumb drive at her.

“Oh, thank you, Cuz, I owe you so…wait. _All_ the files from that week?” She suddenly looked at him suspiciously, peering at the computer screen.

“Yup. Including the pictures. So before I go show them to Steve, want to tell me what’s been going on between you and Danny?” It really was nice when suspects walked into his plans, and little cousins were always suspect. “He’s been…relaxed.” He never thought he’d be able to use that word to describe the New Jersey detective.

She actually looked guilty at that one. “Not what you think, brah. I can’t really tell you without Danny’s permission.”

“What do you need my permission for?”

They both jumped in surprise. He was looking at the door where Kono was standing and he still hadn’t seen Danny walk up. “You have definitely been hanging out with your partner too long, Danny, if you’re sneaking around like that.” Chin shook his head.

“Yeah, I thought I’d diversify my skill set. Mix up actual proper procedure with hair-raising suicide techniques. What are you two discussing?”

“You, actually.” Chin looked straight at Danny. “What have you two been doing, speaking of sneaking around? Should I get the aunts to ask your intentions?”

Danny laughed. “Okay, no. One, scary. Two, I’d be more worried about you.” Danny tilted his head, obviously considering something, so Chin just maintained the eye contact. “This doesn’t leave this room. Yes, those pictures are of me surfing.” Huh. Apparently Danny had been standing there for a little while. “Long story short, because I don’t want to lose it at work, it got really bad emotionally to surf, but your meddling little cousin dragged me back out on a board the other weekend. Went this last weekend too, and I had to shower downstairs yesterday because I was running late and had to wash the salt off.”

Kono couldn’t help but cackle at that. “Late for work ‘cause of the waves? We’ll turn you into a beach bum, yet.”

Chin shook his head at the bizarre image of Danny camped on a beach. “You told Steve this?”

“Nope.”

Chin just looked back and forth between the two of them.

“I need not-Steve time. He’s around all the time at work. He’s always dragging me out for dinner, and running into us when I’ve got Grace. I don’t mind. There are worse people on the island to spend that much time with – can you imagine Rachel’s reaction if I let Grace anywhere near Toast? Nah, Steve’s a good guy, and I like him. I just need a break from him occasionally, need some time when I’m in control, not being flung around the island at his breakneck pace. And I really don’t need him tied up with my memories of surfing.”

Chin frowned at the wording of that and traded a glance with Kono, who nodded like she understood what that meant. With no explanation forthcoming, Chin looked back at Danny.

With a sigh, Danny continued, “Never mind. Just leave it that I have my reasons for now. And as much fun as it will be to tell him, let me choose when, okay?” Danny was starting to look nervous, and Chin was harboring a couple ideas as to why, especially after cornering Steve when the pictures first showed up.

“I really think you’re making the wrong decision, brah, but I’ll follow your lead – on two conditions.” Chin leaned forward, pinning Danny with a look.

“Cause anything around here is ever simple. Name them.”

“One. When Steve finally breaks and asks, you tell him the whole truth. Including dealing with the pout and the attitude for lying to him.”

“Done. Like you two wouldn’t leave me high and dry anyway.” He rolled his eyes – everyone knew exactly how fast they abandoned Danny to his partner’s angst.

“True. Irrelevant, but true.” He held up a second finger. “You’re gonna tell me when and where you’re next going. Cause Jersey on a board? This I gotta see.”

* * *

Steve knew it was a cliché, but that whole saying about once being an accident, twice coincidence, and three times enemy action? Completely true. There were three distinct facts to consider in this case that had developed over the last month or so. Since it was Friday, Chin and Kono had taken off early and Danny was hiding in his office cursing at paperwork, so he could lie back on his office couch and obsess over the facts he had seen. He grabbed his football as he lay down, needing something to occupy his hands while his thoughts whirled.

Fact one: Danny was in a phenomenally better mood. The look on his face wasn’t anything Steve had really seen before. Not his “I get to taunt the stupid people and put them in jail” look. Nor his “there is a sane place on this island that sells real pizza” look. And not his “I got to spend the entire weekend with my Grace” look – which, come to think, was a look he hadn’t seen in a while, so he needed to see if Rachel was being crazy about Grace’s schedule again. No, this was a level of happy – and relaxed, even content with life – he’d never seen in his partner. He’d even calmed down about some of Steve’s driving habits, even when Steve was trying to provoke a reaction from his shorter friend. While it was a beautiful thing to see Danny grinning widely, even laughing, so frequently, Steve was insanely jealous of whatever was putting it there.

Fact two: Danny had come in at a dead run on Wednesday, hair still damp from a shower from the locker room downstairs, but he was pretty sure he actually saw some grains of sand lurking in it. Not that he watched Danny close enough to see sand in his hair. Or notice that Danny’s already sun-streaked hair was getting lighter and lighter. Not that he’d been watching his partner’s toned body in such an unprofessional manner. He was just looking out for Danny’s well-being. Anyway, sand. Which meant a beach. Which meant someone’s able to actually drag Danny somewhere, when Steve had heard repeatedly just how uninterested Danny was in going to one.

Fact three: His team was keeping a massive secret from him. No, call it like it is – they were lying to him. He’d completely lost count at this point the number of times he’d walked in to the office to see Danny and Kono, and recently Chin, laughing and waving, but completely falling silent and even looking slightly guilty when they saw Steve, with the most recent incident being Wednesday afternoon. Conversations “about informants” and questions “about forms” provoked unreasonable amounts of laughter. Other conversations would come to an abrupt halt when he walked in a room. And he kept seeing Danny and Kono glancing at each other through their office windows and texting each other. He knew they were deliberately taunting him when he asked his partner what they were talking about and Danny snapped, "Going surfing." Considering Danny’s long-held views on the sport – those strange pictures notwithstanding – he knew it was a metaphor for something, but what?

There’s only one likely explanation to this. Danny’s dating either Chin or Kono. Probably not both, since he’s pretty sure his partner is crazy monogamous, and probably slightly possessive. That, and Chin and Kono are cousins, so it’d be weird. Sure, there were some other options – they might be planning a party, though Steve’s birthday wasn’t for a couple months, and there weren’t any major holidays coming up. Maybe they’re planning a vacation, to get away from him. Or plotting his death, though that makes the amount of laughter…disturbing.

As the truth hit him, he tossed the ball with too much spin, knocking his monitor off his desk. That’s gotta be it, then. Danny’s seeing Chin. Kono’s sweet and strong and smart and hot, but she and Danny would butt heads, and not in the enjoyably flirtatious way Danny argues with Steve. Both Danny and Kono have too much stubborn pigheadedness to last long; besides, he was pretty certain she was seeing Ben. Chin, however, had both enough intense focus to interest Danny and enough calmness to balance Danny’s high temper. And they seem to be working well together. Especially since that case with Danny’s ex-partner – he and Chin bonded in anger at IA’s foolishness. That must’ve been when they started seeing each other, and it frustrated Steve that he only now noticed it.

He lay there, drumming against the side of the couch in annoyance about why they wouldn’t just tell him – yeah, he was technically still Navy Reserves, but he was cool with it. Heck, he’d messed around with guys before, either from beer or boredom. And he thought Danny trusted him. Chin, too, for that matter. He was their boss, true. There were some pesky fraternization rules that would be enforced in a normal precinct, but it’s not like he enforces rules that he doesn’t see the point to. He knew that some police forces could be a bit old-fashioned, but this was: A, Hawai’i; and B, his task force to run how he wants. He had a written letter from Jameson around here somewhere saying that. So it really hurt that neither of the guys, neither his partner nor his old friend, trusted him with this.

It also hurt that Chin got there first, he realized, as he folded his arms defensively. Mentally and physically, he could feel his teeth grinding – ironic, since it was usually him causing damage to Danny’s teeth. He’d been nursing a…well, he’s too old for it to be a crush. But he noticed the first day that not only was Danny attractive in a compactly muscular way, he was quick with words and eminently professional, for all that Steve gave him hell for it. And their relationship’s just gotten closer and tighter – he looked forward to the banter, to setting Danny off and watching him work out his stress in verbal and physical flailing. Even better were the grins he could sometimes get from his partner, when Danny’s entire face would just light up in glee. He wanted to give Danny another reason to stay in Hawai’i, and he thought he had seen signs from Danny that the feelings were reciprocated. Steve had just wanted to be strategic about the situation, since they did have to work together. It looked like he was too slow, though – ironic, that Danny usually moaned that it was Steve that charged off without thinking.

The more he thought about it, the more he knew he had to follow his instincts and go talk to Danny about the whole situation and congratulate him on his relationship, no matter how jealous he was. Standing up and screwing his best happy face in place, he went in search of his partner.

* * *

The pile of forms on Danny’s desk was finally reaching a height he could see over, his e-mail was up-to-date, the clock on the wall had ticked almost to five, this whole damn week was almost over, he could go home tonight and figure out what to tell Grace about surfing when he picked her up Saturday night, and he could meet Chin and Kono on the beach in the morning to get some quality board time in. So of course, Mr. Impossible walks in with what appeared to be an attempt at “I’m friendly and enjoy talking about emotions” look plastered across his face – too bad it read more as “over-medicated ferret” this time. Some days, he wasn’t sure why he was so attracted to the SEAL. Deciding offense was better than defense, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“Oh, joy. It’s always fun when the boss surfaces right before closing time. What brings you to my humble cage? New forms for all the procedures you’re allergic to? I mean, I actually saw you itching yesterday when traffic forced you to follow the speed limit.” If that didn’t let some of the wind out of his sails…

Steve’s face immediately morphed into an interesting combination of hurt and annoyed. “Danny, we need to talk.” Oh, look. He brought a headache for Danny. How nice.

“That is what two adults usually do. Unless we’re gonna send each other texts. Or love notes. Smoke signals? I would like to get out of here tonight at some point, so talk.”

Steve’s brows crinkled together in the frown he wore whenever he had to talk about emotions. “I’m concerned about our partnership, Danny…”

 _What the…_

“You haven’t been very talkative lately with me lately, in fact this is the first time you and I have bantered in a few weeks, yet I’ve seen you chatting with Chin and Kono all the time…”

“What?” Danny knew his face was showing just how lost he was.

“And you’ve been more relaxed than I’ve ever seen you, so you’re enjoying what you’re doing…”

“What??” _Oh, God. How did he find out?_

“And while it is affecting your work performance, with you coming in late a couple times…

“Okay, what the hell are you talking about!?”

“I want you to know that I’m okay with you dating Chin.”

Danny opened his mouth, only to find that he had no words to encompass the magnitude of crazy that had just sashayed into his office.

“I’m really hurt that you guys didn’t tell me.” Steve pouted. “If it makes you happy, then I’m all for it. I know you’ll be professional in front of outsiders, but it’s just us here mostly. You, as my partner, can talk to me about these things. I’m more than willing to waive the fraternization rules if that’s what you’re worried about. It just feels a little like betrayal that the two of you thought I wouldn’t understand.”

Danny knew his jaw was working, could feel it moving, but he couldn’t get a single coherent sound out. It must be Steve’s looks that attracted Danny, because it sure wasn’t his perceptive powers.

“But I understand why, and I’m fine with it. Now that it’s in the open, I hope we can get back to our old friendship. Did you want to go out for a beer tonight?”

“No! No, I think I can safely say right now I do not want to go out for a beer right now. Steve…”

“Oh, okay. Well, I might see you this weekend. If not, I’ll see you Monday.” And with that Steve bolted from the office, but the headache remained.

 _Some days, the only way to deal with him really was to bang your head against your desk. Or his._ Danny thought, feeling his temper spike. Not that he ever understood Steve’s thought processes, but how the man had come up with this one, considering how much they flirted with each other, was inconceivable. He hated to admit it, but maybe it was time to sit the man down and talk to him about the surfing…and maybe even about their relationship. That, or Danny could just shoot the man and solve all sorts of problems. On consideration, the latter was probably the easier option – less paperwork, in the long run. He seriously needed to rant at someone about this.

* * *

Chin sighed, not really wanting to answer a call from the team, but a case might have come up so he thumbed it over to speaker. “It’s Friday night and there’s a game on. Who are we arresting?”

“Our boss.”

Oh. Danny. And judging from the clipped words, he’d already worked himself into a major snit. “What laws did he break this time?”

“Only ones related to common sense and rational thought, o boyfriend mine,” Danny spat through audibly clenched teeth.

 _Boyfriend?_ Well, that was unexpected. “Boyfriend? Really?”

“Yeah, he thinks we’re dating. Apparently, he’s convinced he’s seen all these signs that we’re secretly together. He even broke out the kicked-puppy face when he told me he felt betrayed – _betrayed_ – that we didn’t trust him to be accepting of our relationship. He was nice enough to say that he would ‘waive the protocols about fraternization’, though.” Chin could hear the finger quotes. “The man is a grade A, world-class idiot!”

“He’s convinced himself we’re a couple. What evidence does he have? And how did he miss the obvious fact that you’re stupid for him, not me?”

Chin heard silence echo over the phone. “Damn it. I thought I was more subtle than that.”

“Danny, brah, you two are a lot of things. Subtle is not one of them. How Steve missed it I do not know.”

“I just. I can’t deal with him right now! He just sent me an e-mail – he now wants to hang out with us, go to the beach with us – he apparently saw sand in my hair at some point – and even double-date with us! Of course denying it means I don’t trust him enough to be honest with him. I had thought we already straightened out how much I trust him.” Chin started to worry about Danny’s blood pressure, listening to him growl. “I can’t be close to him right now, or I _will_ punch that ‘I’m trying to be supportive’ look off his face. This is why I can’t have nice things – he and his ego always want a piece! God forbid when he finds out about the surfing! That was a me-and-Matt thing, with all sorts of meanings and things and…things. He’ll want it to be a me-and-Steve thing, and if the man is stupid enough to think you and I are dating? I can’t deal with it.”

Chin heard the panic in Danny’s voice, also noting that Danny didn’t deny his own attraction to Steve. “Do you want to go get a beer at J.J.’s? Or come over here and watch the game? Cool down a bit?”

“No offense, Chin, but I need a day or two away from all of you to even come close to cooling down. Can you call Kono and scratch tomorrow?”

“Yeah, brah, I’ll do that. And the offer for beer stands. Call one of us before you kill the boss, though.”

“I’ll try. I’ll at least give you immediate post-mortem notification. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Bye.” Between the stories he’d heard from the elder McGarrett and the behavior he’d seen, he figured Danny was already being watched and likely had under twenty-four hours before another confrontation with Steve. This weekend could get very long, very fast. Shooting off a couple texts to his cousin about unperceptive coworkers, he settled in with his beer to watch the rest of the game and enjoy what little quiet was left in his life.

* * *

Something about Danny’s reaction when they talked kept Steve up that night. Oh, Danny was surprised, alright, but he wasn’t surprised that Steve knew about the relationship. Was there a relationship? No – he’d interrogated a lot of people, and the surprise was about something else. In fact, there was that adorable “Steve’s talking crazy again” frown when he mentioned the relationship. Which means his guess about Chin and Danny was wrong. There was something he missed, some factor that he had completely not seen.

Also, he was now considering even Danny’s frowns adorable, which was another problem unto itself.

So now he was breaking his own personal oath and actually spying on his partner. He didn’t mean to – it’s not like he was actively stalking Danny – but he saw Danny’s silver Camaro parked on a less popular public beach while running morning errands. Curiosity was always one of his weaknesses, so he pulled off around the corner and got out of his truck, grabbing a pair of binoculars as he went. Hiding in some ground cover, he tried to see if he could spot his partner on the beach. If Danny on a beach wasn’t a strange-enough thought, his brain completely stopped when he finally did see his partner…

In a tight green short-sleeved wetsuit jacket with black emblazoning and neoprene shorts that accentuated Danny’s wide shoulders, narrow waist, strong legs…

Carrying what looked like from this distance to be a 7’ or 8’ white surfboard with a large blue geometric print that he remembered recently appearing at Kono’s tucked casually under an arm, …

Walking square into the surf, getting on to the board, and paddling out a fair distance…

Standing smoothly and riding the next wave in like he’s been doing it for years.

Huh. So he was wrong about the Danny-and-Chin thing being the secret. And considering the crack about “going surfing”, maybe about the team lying, too, which was reassuring to his paranoid SEAL training. But as he sat there, he got more agitated about why his team wouldn’t tell him about this.

 _No, Steve be honest. You’re upset that Danny didn’t tell you himself. It’s not like he’s been holding back championship talent. But it’s definitely something he’s done before today. Damn, but he looks good doing it._ He settled in, watching his partner ride wave after wave in, doing basic carving on some and just calmly riding others in with almost a meditative air. He nearly broke his cover when he saw Danny take a messy spill, but the speed which Danny popped back above the surface had him relaxing back down. Steve completely lost track of how long they were out there, Danny surfing and Steve watching.

He nearly stopped breathing when Danny finally got out of the water, set the board down, and peeled the top of the wetsuit off, exposing his well-muscled chest. With the binocs, Steve could watch the beads of water drip out of that ridiculous hairdo, run down over Danny’s lightly-furred pecs, trace along his defined abs, and disappear at that tight waist. He stared hungrily as Danny bent over, legs flexing cleanly, to pick up the board and come striding up the beach, empty arm swinging freely and shoulders loose, as he walked towards the parked cars.

Right toward Steve.

Steve watched as Danny froze halfway up the beach as something caught his eye off to his side. The detective started panning his narrowed gaze across the parking area. When Danny’s gaze landed on his hiding spot, Steve was horrified to see Danny tense up fully and point straight at him. The smaller cop threw his hand in the air angrily and strode toward the car.

 _Busted. You know he’s going to get angrier the longer you pretend to not be here._ Steve told himself, standing up and walking toward Danny. As soon as he was within earshot, he spoke up. “Danny, wait, listen…”

Danny didn’t turn from where he had just fastened the trunk closed over the tail of the board with a bungee, shoulders taut with tension that wasn’t there a minute ago. Instead, he got in the car, slammed the door, pulled a u-turn, and sped off, leaving Steve stunned at the anger he had seen in his partner’s face as it passed by.

 _Okay, McGarrett. The yelling’s about to start. Time to go retrieve what remains of your friendship before it’s too late._ With a sigh, he wearily walked back to his truck, mentally bracing himself for the fight that was about to begin.

* * *

Danny slammed into his apartment, furious at his partner. The man was an invasive nutjob, so he had been ready for a battery of questions, might even have looked forward to the bantering flirting they did, but actually stalking at him? Following him? Spying on him with binoculars? That was so very not acceptable; he didn’t even have the words to begin to explain to Steve how pissed he was. Throwing his jacket into the bathroom, he carefully propped his new board up by the door as a reminder to re-wax it when he got a chance.

 _Damn it. I know I told Chin and Kono we weren’t going, so how’d he find out? I just wanted a quiet morning by myself with the new board. Maybe a chance to remember Matt. So of course he shows up. If I didn’t know better, he’s probably on his way here so he can “explain”._ Danny wrenched open his fridge, seeing nothing that would satisfy the gnawing in his gut. He sighed and slumped forward against the counter. He’d been resting like that for several minutes when he heard a strong knocking against the door. Knowing his partner would barge right in, he just waited.

And waited.

Steve hadn’t come waltzing in. Steve still wasn’t waltzing in. Steve had, apparently, been replaced by a pod person on the way back from the beach. Well, as Chin said, subtlety wasn’t his strong suit.

“Are you going to come in or stand out there pouting all morning?”

The door slowly opened as Steve cautiously opened the door, both hands full of cups of coffee and a bag of what smelled like fresh malasadas and fruit. “Have you had breakfast, Danny? I grabbed some stuff on my way over. Let me explain...”

Oh, Steve needed to learn Mr. Reasonable had left the building, and Danny was only too happy to inform his partner. “Oh, yes, please do explain, Steve. Please do explain why my partner, who I thought we established I could trust, followed me this morning for I don’t know how long, lurking in the bushes with binoculars watching me like some creepy stalker.”

Walking into the apartment, Steve set the bag and cups down on the bar and leaned against it. “I gotta ask – how’d you see me?”

“Of all the…” Danny threw his hands in the air. “I saw that ode to overdone hypermasculinity you call a truck –“

“This coming from a man who drives a muscle car.”

“A department-issued pursuit car, thank you.” Danny could deal with Steve just wandering in. He would not put up with Steve insulting his car. “I saw your truck and knew you were around somewhere. Did you perhaps forget that glass reflects light, Mr. Secret Ninja Soldier?”

“You saw the lens glare?”

If Steve was playing dumb on purpose, Danny would kill him. As it was, the only option was to get up in Steve’s space and poke him in the chest for emphasis. “A moving shiny something where something shouldn’t be shining in a bunch of plants? Yeah, Steve. In case your stalking has driven everything else out of your mind, I’m a detective. I make a not-entirely-crappy wage doing a job I don’t completely loathe with people who don’t drive me too insane by noticing things that are out of place.”

“Oh.” One day, Danny would figure out which part of that sentence made Steve frown so deeply, but the man was talking again. “Danny, I wasn’t following you.”

“Run that by me again, because I could swear I heard you say you weren’t following me, and yet there you were, on that out-of-the-way beach, binoculars in hand.”

“I wasn’t following you. I was running errands all over the island, and I saw your car. You, at a beach?”

Danny rolled his eyes, waving his hand in frustration. “You make it sound like a crime.”

“I thought it was! You haven’t exactly been welcoming of the idea.” Steve’s shoulders rose and fell slightly. “I thought I somehow missed a call-out.”

“Nope. No call-out. And also, Steve, you’re a bad liar. If you thought it was a case, you would’ve come down on the beach to find us, not hide in the bushes like some Peeping Tom.” The hand came back down to poke Steve, as if Danny could physically force the truth out.

“I was observing the scene. Danno…”

“Oh, of all the possible times, this is not when you can use that name!”

A bright smirk spread across Steve’s face. “But I can use it at other times?”

“Don’t distract me!”

“You didn’t say no. And you lied to me first. I thought you trusted me.”

 _I did what?_ “Oh, that’s so not on. Do tell exactly how exactly I lied to you. In what way have I betrayed your trust, o secret agent man?”

“You’ve lied to me every time you said you didn’t like the beach or want to learn to surf.”

“Technically, I didn’t want to learn because I didn’t need to learn. And…” Danny paused, breaking eye contact for the first time in the entire fight. “It’s a whole long history that I don’t want to go into.”

“There you go again, Danny, hiding your past. I’m your partner; you can trust me.”

Danny snorted at the blatant hypocrisy. “Really? Because you tell me all your secrets.”

“You know I can’t talk about a lot of that. I’ve always told you the important things. It’s about the guy in that picture, isn’t it?”

Danny walked over to the unfolded bed and flopped down onto it, head tilted back as he stared at the ceiling. “Oh god, we are going to talk about this. You really have no respect for my boundaries, you know this?”

“You want me to drop it? I’ll drop it. Just tell me to drop it.”

Danny sighed, staring at the ceiling and considering his choices. The idea of being able to keep things to himself was a nice idea, but the man was annoyingly right. He _was_ keeping important secrets from Steve, and he knew what that did to all sorts of different partnerships. And he trusted Steve with his life. Might as well trust him with his past. “Okay. Yes, I surfed. I grew up with the guy in the picture. Our freshman year in college, he dragged me out on a board. Ended up being the best summer of my life, because of the surfing…and because of him.” He closed his eyes tightly. “And because I can’t have nice things, he took a spill that put him in a coma at the end of the summer. Died in December. So forgive me, Steve, if surfing and the beach brought up a whole host of bad memories.”

“Shit, Danny. I’m sorry.” Danny heard Steve coming closer and felt him sit down beside Danny on the bed.

“Not your fault. Unless you ran an op against him for some reason. In which case, keep lying to me.” Danny knew it was a bad habit to poke Steve like that, but he needed to hear something besides the compassion in his partner’s voice before he broke and climbed into Steve’s arms.

“So funny, Danno.” Steve snorted angrily, then paused. “So why start back up?”

“You know that sweet girl I’ve got? She sent those pictures to our own little manipulator, who decided to go digging. After watching me break down into a whiskey glass, she pointed out I was being a stubborn idiot.”

“Anyone could have told you that.” The smirk was back – Danny didn’t even need to see it when he heard that tone in Steve’s voice – and felt Steve rest a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, well, Matt knew it best. Gave it some thought, and let her drag me back out on a board.” He was really appreciating that Steve had the sense to shut up and stay quiet, for now. “The first wave hurt. The memories, that is.” He couldn’t help himself as he felt his body lean toward Steve’s warmth. “A lot. But the second wave was a little better. By the fourth, I remembered why I let Matt drag me out that second time. It was relaxing, peaceful. I felt calm, like I could just coast and let the ocean carry me.”

“So why not tell me?”

Danny tensed, rolling his head toward Steve. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yes I do.”

“No you don’t. You’re gonna yell.” Danny’s voice went flat as he tried to conceal his emotions.

Oh, look. The stubborn frown is back. “I’m gonna yell? Why am I gonna yell?”

“Cause you’re not gonna like it.”

Steve crossed his arms. “How about telling me and seeing if I like it or not?”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Consider me warned. Why?”

Danny braced himself. There wasn’t a good way to word this. “Because I wanted a piece of my life that you didn’t immediately invade like it was a foreign country.” Oh, wow. Apparently there was a whole range of bad ways to phrase it, and he had outdone himself this time. At some level, he knew he should be proud that he was giving Steve a guided tour of all these emotions. Danny felt him pull away to the edge of the couch, already missing the warm body next to him.

“Danno, I…I don’t understand.”

Danny sighed, waving his hand in a circle while ticking off points. “You’ve infiltrated my life. My job. My relationship with Grace. My rat-trap of an apartment. What little social life I have. You just swooped in and took control like you had always been there.” _Breathe, Danny, before you start yelling._ “I just got surfing back. And I knew – I _knew_ the second you found out, you’d be dragging me to the beach every chance you got. I thought I wanted some space in my life, McGarrett. I thought it didn’t need to be the ‘Steve-and-Danny Show’ twenty-four, seven.” Danny hated knowing he had just put that hurt look on Steve’s expressive face.

“I didn’t know you felt that way,” Steve snapped self-defensively.

“Because you pay attention so often to what anyone besides Steve wants. Nope, just charge in, smile at the friendlies and shoot the hostiles.” The second it left his mouth, Danny knew it was completely the wrong thing to say. He was going to have to resort to drastic measures, like complete honesty, if he wanted to keep his partner.

Steve looked at the ground for a second, squaring his shoulders. “Fine. You want your space, I understand that. I’ll give you space. Keep the malasadas.” He visibly gathered himself as he rose and strode toward the door.

Oh, this was not happening. “You are not walking out that door before we finish this.” Danny launched himself across the room, grabbing his partner by the shoulders and slamming him against the wall, right on top of the surfboard. Not exactly what he planned, but he wasn’t going to give Steve a chance to escape, so he pressed an arm against Steve’s body and leaned in with his full weight.

* * *

Steve found himself pinned firmly against the surfboard, with his partner pressed against his chest. He could easily break out of it and reverse their position, but he suspected Danny needed this moment of control. Besides, he’d been quietly craving this much contact from his partner for a while now.

“Danny?”

“Shut up. Just shut up and actually listen for once in your life.” Danny leaned in, resting his forehead on Steve’s chest, breathing deeply.

Steve’s traitorous body warmed at the touch; he could feel himself relaxing into Danny’s grip against his better judgment. Looking down at the top of his partner’s head, he said, “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I don’t. I don’t want you to leave. I usually like you in my space.” Danny snorted. “The surfing is just so new, I wanted to enjoy it for a while. I was going to tell you, once I figured out if I wanted to keep doing it.”

Steve breathed in the scent of saltwater lingering around his agitated partner. “Being late for work was a pretty good sign.”

“True. But you’re not talking. I am. You want honesty? Fine. Fine. I really like you in my space. Sometimes I wish you were more in my space. But the surfing? That was something I shared with Matt. You already confuse the hell out of me. Add surfing to it? I wouldn’t know if what I was feeling was for you or remnants for Matt.”

Steve held his breath – was Danny saying what he thought he was saying? He spread his legs apart and slid lower against the board, even with Danny. Resting one hand on Danny’s shoulder, he lifted Danny’s face to look at him level in the eye. “Danny, what are you saying? What feelings?”

“Oh, take your pick. Anger, often. Fear for our health, at least once a day.” Danny focused on Steve. “Respect, for your not-inconsiderable intelligence. Amusement, that your stunts don’t get you killed more often.” Danny stilled for a minute as he examined Steve’s face. “Trust, in spite of all the secrets we’ve kept. Attraction, god knows why.”

His first response was to preach his awesomeness but he bit it back, seeing the raw honesty in his partner’s face. Taking a huge gamble, he wrapped his arms around Danny’s broad shoulders and pulled him closer in between his spread legs, relishing the increased pressure of his partner’s taut body against his own lean form. Before Danny could pull away, Steve leaned in and briefly pressed his mouth against his partner’s. As Danny started, lips parting on a gasp, Steve dove in again for a little longer, feeling the heat of his partner’s breath, and lightly catching Danny’s lower lip between his as he pulled away. He leaned back against the board and examined his partner’s shocked face, waiting for the explosion foreboded by Danny’s hand clenching against his chest.

Danny slowly opened his eyes. “McGarrett, don’t fuck with me. Not today.”

“Not fucking with you.” Steve grinned softly, then leered as he caressed a hand down Danny’s back to rest just above the curve of his ass. “Maybe later.” That glare was so worth it, even though he knew he’d pay for it at some point. Making Danny annoyed and prickly was preferable to making him hurt and confused any day of the week. “But I’m not messing with you. I’m attracted to you too.” He pulled him in closer, until Danny had to move his arm off Steve’s chest, bracing it against the wall by Steve’s head. He pressed a small series of kisses against the edge of Danny’s jaw, leading up to those rough lips where he lightly sucked the lower lip back in to draw a deliciously loud moan from the shorter man.

“Steve, wait.” Danny pulled away, far enough to examine Steve’s hopeful expression. “You serious about this?”

Steve slid his other hand from Danny’s shoulder up to his head, tousling his partner’s hair and noting the way Danny’s eyes fluttered as his hair was rubbed against the grain. “Yeah. Been wanting to do this for a while. Physically, since we met. Getting to know you? ‘Infiltrating your life’? Only made me want this for better reasons.”

Steve’s breath left him as Danny lunged into him, claiming his mouth in a deep and bruising kiss that he returned passionately, opening under his partner’s onslaught. He could feel his partner’s lips moving, whispering soft words of desire directly into Steve’s mouth. He pulled Danny tighter, pressing their bodies together, feeling the pressure of Danny’s hardness resting against his own. It was too much to resist – he thrust his hips forward to meet Danny’s, only to feel the board behind his back slip and fall as their weight was lifted from it. Only Danny’s strong grip around his shoulder and arm braced against the wall kept them from toppling over.

“Okay, you and I are both too old to do this against the wall, when I have a perfectly good bed behind me,” Danny snapped, pushing away from the wall and dragging Steve’s pliant body with him.

“It’s a sofa bed – I’d hardly call it good.” Steve took the banter and following snort as a sign that Danny really was game for this, whatever it was. He let Danny lead him over toward the sofa, amused that Danny kept kissing his chest through his shirt as he pulled strewn blankets and clothes off the unmade bed one-handed while stroking Steve’s clothed ass with the other. When Danny turned around to pull the sheets back, Steve pressed against Danny, rubbing his covered erection against his shirtless partner’s lower back. The arch of Danny’s back as he rubbed onto Steve like a cat stretched his entire neck, a temptation Steve wasn’t going to pass up as he hunched over to lick the pale length of Danny’s spine. He loved the ocean in general before, but catching the remnants of that salt from his partner’s skin on his tongue, all surrounded by Danny’s musky scent? This was better than he thought it could be.

“Oh, fuck, Steve. Stop. Stop. You’re killing me.” Danny wriggled free of Steve’s hands, flopping down on his back. He stared straight at Steve as he slid his hands slowly down and peeled off his wetsuit shorts. “You gonna stand there all day?”

Steve knew, as an officer and a gentleman, to always accept an invitation if possible. Seeing his partner’s magnificently firm body spread out before him was clearly an invitation he’d be a fool to pass up. Quickly skimming his t-shirt and cargoes off, he kneeled down and pressed his naked length against Danny’s, enjoying the moan of pleasure from his heated partner. The steady pressure of Danny’s hard cock against his own was providing a mind-numbing tingle he could feel clear to his toes, only improved by the steady stream of filth spewing from Danny’s mouth straight into his ear.

“God, yeah. Fuck, Steve, so good. You feel so good, rubbing your cock against me. So hot. Not gonna last. Want you so bad. Make you mine. Wanna lick you, kiss you, trace your tats with my teeth.” Danny’s moans were getting louder as the friction increased, both of them leaking copiously.

Figured that Danny would be loud in bed, but he wasn’t about to complain at all – it balanced his own ingrained habit of silence. He was reaching a comfortable rhythm that he could keep up all day when suddenly Danny leaned up for a kiss and bit his lip hard. Steve lost himself in the sensation for a few seconds, coming back to find himself pinned on his back, Danny straddling him and sliding back down his torso, rubbing Steve’s cock against his ass. Pinned to the bed by Danny’s firm weight Steve couldn’t help but run his hands down to Danny’s firmly muscled cheeks, pulling them apart, relinquishing the control he knew Danny wanted. “God damn, Danny. So hot,” he whispered as he rubbed his erection along Danny’s cleft. “Why.” He had to breathe, had to slide a hand down to pull Danny’s legs farther apart so he could slide closer in, pressing his shaft against that amazing heat. “Why’d we wait?”

“Because you’re an idiot who runs away from emotions.” Danny moaned, fingers tangled up in Steve’s hair clenching and pulling as the fat head of Steve’s dick kept catching on the rim of his hole. “If you stop moving, McGarrett, I will shoot you.” He slid back and forth, rutting harder against Steve’s hard erection and grinding his own need onto Steve’s firm thigh. “Oh god, yeah. Right there, Steve, want your dick so bad," he directed, as he writhed against Steve, the heat of his words escalating both of their needs. Steve’s eyes fluttered as Danny‘s voice dropped to a husky whisper full of unrestrained lust. “Oh, you like hearing that, Steve? You like hearing what I want?” Danny stretched up, sliding forward to bite Steve’s ear. "Gonna have you fuck me later. Get your dick in me. Lay you out like this. Lick you hard and wet and moaning, climb up and sink down on you, taking your cock right up my hot ass.”

Danny sat up fully, bracing his hands against Steve’s chest. He ground his heavy weight back against Steve’s cock, keeping a steady rhythm going all while he moaned loudly at the sensation. “Lean back like this, so far it almost hurts, and ride you slowly till you’re screaming my name. Pull off before you’re done and wrap my mouth around you till you lose it. Flip you over and lick your come into your ass.” He rocked forward, laying back down against Steve. Sloppily dragging his tongue up Steve’s neck and plunging into Steve’s gasping mouth, he licked around thoroughly as if demonstrating what he planned. “Use my fingers to stretch you the rest of the way open, stroke your prostate till you’re writhing and gagging for it. Slide right in to your hot, hot hole. Fuck you until I come so hard in you we both pass out.”

Steve really had no clue what sent him flying over the edge. It might have been the vivid images Danny was painting in Steve’s mind. It might have been when he rubbed his fingers against that tight hole, causing Danny to scream, “Right there! Steve!” and come hard over Steve’s chest. It might have been feeling Danny clench around the tips of his fingers, imagining that taut heat wrapped around him. It might have been Danny falling forward and biting his neck right above his collarbone. It probably had something to do with all the tension between them since they met. All he knew was it took one, two, three more strokes and he was shooting his load all over Danny’s ass, choking out, “Danno! Love you so much!”

* * *

 _Huh. Still got it._ Danny smirked as he lay against his limp partner, letting his own breathing slow from a very satisfying orgasm. He waited until Steve showed signs of stirring, then slapped Steve’s head hard.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“Never ever, _ever_ call me Danno in bed again! I don’t want to think about you naked when Grace calls me that.”

“All those restrictions. I can call use it at other times? What can I call you in bed, then?”

“Like I have any control over you.”

“Knew you were a control freak. You need to learn to relax and enjoy yourself, brah.”

Danny stared at his partner and down at their sticky, entangled bodies. The man really was unbelievable, some times. “Uh, I was enjoying myself. Until you decided to use my daughter’s nickname for me while getting me off.”

“Okay, okay. Shall we start on that checklist?”

 _I don’t know why I even try to keep up, some days._ “What checklist?”

“All those things you were whispering in my ear. Your mother know you got a filthy mouth like that?”

“That, you, listened to? Now you listen to me?” Danny blushed hard. “I don’t always, uh, think about what I’m saying in bed.” He felt his blush get hotter when Steve leered at him and squeezed his thighs again.

“Nah, I like it. I like your mouth.” Danny felt a hand run up his back and pull him down to kiss him dirtily as Steve’s other hand continued to stroke Danny’s curved and flexing ass. “So, gonna follow through?”

The continued stimulation made Danny moan and bury his face in Steve’s throat. “God, Steve. Do not stop that.” He started grinding again, wishing he was still young enough to get hard again this soon. A niggling feeling made him glance up at his alarm clock. “Oh God.” He started to roll off Steve only to be wrapped up in a strong embrace and pinned under his larger partner. “Let go. Steve, let me go.”

“Hey! Calm down, Danno. Don’t freak. It’s just us. We got time.”

“No, we don’t. Because that clock says eleven and I told Rachel I’d pick Grace up at noon. I needed a shower after surfing. And I _really_ need a shower now. This is the first weekend I’ve had Grace in a month and I’m not losing it.”

“Okay, into the shower. I’ll be right behind you.”

Well, at least Steve rolled off him. Climbing off the bed, he strode toward the bathroom. “Cause you and I in the shower together will speed anything up.” He had the water started and was about to climb in when he felt Steve press up behind him. “Hey, no! You and I, in the shower, I said no.”

“Relax, Danny. Just gonna get rinsed off so we can go pick her up together.” Steve leaned in, pressing a light kiss to Danny’s head. “I know better than to get in the way of Grace-time. And really, right now? You stink.” Steve lifted Danny over the tub edge into the spray and followed him in. Mechanically soaping Danny up and scrubbing him down first, he then rinsed his own body off and pulled them out of the shower together to wrap his partner in a thin towel.

Danny was impressed and content that his partner was actually listening to him and prioritizing. Leaning in to Steve’s chest to inhale his clean scent, he knew he had to ask the question hanging in the air. Pressing his face in, not wanting to see Steve’s face when he answered, Danny asked, “Steve, are we okay? You, me, this?”

Steve stopped drying Danny off and pulled him closer with the towel. “Yeah, very good with this.”

“This a one-time thing?”

“Not unless you want it to be. I like you, Danno.”

Danny knew he’d regret saying this, but he had to test Steve. “Not what you said earlier.”

A huge grin lit up Steve’s face, eyes crinkled and mouth spread wide as he looked down at Danny. “You _do_ listen to me, too!”

“Only when you’re making sense. Which isn’t often.” He leaned back in to Steve’s firm chest for a minute before pulling away in search of pants. “What now?”

“We get dressed and go pick up your daughter. I’m driving, if we’re gonna get there in time.”

“Not what I meant. And you’re not driving with Grace in the car.”

“We spend all our time together. At work and outside of it. We’re always bantering. Chin’s even running a pool among the task force on when we’d hook up.” Steve shrugged after pulling on his shirt. “Might as well give this a try, see if we work as well as everyone thinks. And you can sleep in a better bed than that torture contraption out there. I got an instructor who’d like that for SERE training.”

“Funny guy. Are we leaving? We’re leaving. Move.” Danny herded his partner out the door and into the car. And if he slipped his hand into Steve’s after putting the car in gear and pulling out of the lot, well, no one complained.

* * *

Kono was actually surprised to hear from Danny Saturday afternoon – Chin had warned her about the Friday Night Explosion. But Danny called and said she needed to meet him and Grace at Monster Burger to discuss a few things. When she got there, she found Danny and Grace sitting in one of the booths. Grace was practically bouncing in her seat, staring at a Coral Prince bag sitting next to Danny, and Danny himself? If she thought he was relaxed and happy on a board, he was practically glowing as he leaned back in his seat. And if she wasn’t mistaken, that was one heck of a hickey just under the collar of his shirt. Curiosity piqued, she walked over the table and sat down with Grace.

“Hey, brah. Nice bruise. What’s up?”

“Could we not mention any bruises in front of my daughter? Especially bruises caused by a certain boss of ours?”

Kono’s eyes got wide. “Did he try to hit you? Chin didn’t mention…” She paused as spots of color bloomed on Danny’s cheeks. “Ah. Not a bruise. Congratulate me – Chin now owes me a month of board maintenance.”

“Grace, cover your ears.” Danny waited until she had at least pretended to put her hands against her head – Kono, at least, wasn’t fooled for a minute. “You two were betting on…what, exactly?”

“Well, 5-0 has ‘if’ and ‘when’ pools. Chin and I had a private pool on what would happen when Steve found out about the other thing. He bet that Steve wouldn’t talk to you for a week.” She grinned widely, nodding down at Grace. “I bet on a different reaction. She know?”

Danny motioned at Grace, who uncovered her ears. “About Steve? Yeah. We picked her up from dance lessons this morning and told her.”

Grace beamed. “We get to see Steve again tonight, when he’s done grocery shopping. We’re going to his house for dinner. Danno, what do I call him? Step-Steve?” Kono laughed with glee as Danny spit out his soda. This was better than TV.

“No, monkey.” Danny sputtered out while making an attempt to clean up the mess. “Not yet. Give us some time.”

Kono smiled at her mentor and nodded at the bright blue bag. “I’m guessing from that bag, that there was another reason you called me?”

“Yeah.” Kono watched as Danny’s full attention shifted to her daughter. “Grace, there’s something I’ve been keeping from you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the picture of him and Matt, sliding it over to his daughter, who stared at it, wide-eyed. “Back when I was young, I used to surf. A bad thing happened to a very close friend of mine, that guy there, and it scared me away from surfing for a long time.” He closed his eyes, breathing.

Kono figured she’d take over, give him a minute to compose himself. Focusing on Grace, she continued, “After you sent me the pictures, I talked to your dad and begged him to try surfing again. He didn’t want to say anything, in case he didn’t want to keep surfing.” She looked back at Danny, to see if he was okay.

“Thanks, Kono.” Danny sighed. “Grace, I want to give you something, but there are going to be a lot of rules that go with it. Do you understand?”

Grace looked at her father with large hopeful eyes, nodding. “Yes, Danno.”

He reached next to him and passed over the bag, saying, “Open it.”

Kono peered over nosily as Grace eagerly dug into it and saw a bright pink one-piece swimsuit and a picture of an adorable pink kid’s board decorated with tropical fish. Grace’s excitement reminded Kono of when she got her first board.

“Like I said, Grace, there are rules that go with it. Break any of them and I’ll take the board away.” Danny’s stern tone was belied by the small grin on his face. “One. School comes first.” He waited until she looked up at him. “Two. You will not be in the water unless one of us is in the water with you. Me, Kono, Steve or Chin. And them being on the beach isn’t enough. They have to be in the water with you. Three. If any of us says to get out of the water, you get out of the water. Four. No bragging to your friends. Am I clear?”

Grace nodded solemnly, then reached back down in the bag to pull out the swimsuit. “Yes, Danno.”

Kono saw the smirk and knew what was coming from Danny. “Now, I’m still rusty, but if you ask Kono _very nicely_ , she might teach you.”

Kono now knew why Danny seemed so wrapped around his daughter’s finger, as Grace turned big brown eyes on her in an innocent, pleading expression – even having used the look plenty of times hadn’t rendered her immune to the little girl when Grace asked in a tiny voice, “Miss Kono, if you have some time, would you be willing to give me a surfing lesson?”

“Of course, Miss Grace. I have a date tonight, and so do you and your dad, it sounds, but we might be able to go tomorrow afternoon, if your dad’s okay with it.” She looked up at Danny, getting a small nod, before adding, “One more rule, Grace. We’re not sneaking around behind your daddy. I will always tell him when we go out. If he says it’s too much, we’ll take a break.” Using Danny’s previous tactic, she paused until she saw Grace nod. “You’re young. You’ll have plenty of time to be a champion surfer as you grow up.” Smirking at Danny’s glare for those last words, she stood up out of the booth. “Now, you two get going. I’ll see you at the beach tomorrow.”

* * *

Mrs. Iris Williams always checked her computer first thing in the morning on Monday before her Morristown Historical Society meeting, just in case Edith sent the minutes late. Again. Poor girl’s memory was going, but still. To her surprise, she found an e-mail from her son, all the way from Hawai’i. Knowing her son’s love for all things electronic, she worriedly opened the e-mail to see a short note and an attached picture.

> Ma –
> 
> Since you’re sending pictures and causing trouble, I thought I’d send one back. Share it with Ma Contos, when you see her?
> 
> What’s the plan for Christmas, and how many people can I bring?
> 
> Love, Danny

Attached was a picture of her son on a beach in a swimsuit, leaning on a surfboard that was propped up against a palm tree. In front of him, Grace stood in a one-piece suit, holding a much smaller board. And to his left, with an arm wrapped around her son’s waist was a deliciously tall and handsome young man, grinning wildly at her baby boy.

Satisfied that her son had not just gotten a piece of himself back but came out ahead in the bargain, Iris downloaded and printed the picture to brag on at the Society meeting. She made a mental note to see if she had any more albums, maybe from when Grace was born. Never hurt to see.


End file.
